The present invention relates in general to data compression techniques and, more particularly, to data compression of hyperspectral imagery.
Hyperspectral imaging is a process whereby images are recorded by sensing and storing energy in a number of narrow wavelength slices. For example, in a remote sensing application, information can be recorded in many different spectral bands to describe a scene of interest. Hyperspectral images generally include a vast amount of information about a scene of interest and therefore are very valuable analysis tools for scientists and researchers.
Many applications making use of hyperspectral imaging are satellite-based. The next generation of satellite based imaging systems will be capable of sensing scene radiation in hundreds of distinct wavelength regions. The High-Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (HIRIS) is an example of a future high-resolution multi-band spectrometer. HIRIS can collect 192 spectral bands in the 0.4-2.5 micrometer wavelength region, with each band on the order of 1,000xc3x971,000 pixels. Combining these parameters with a radiometric sensitivity of 12 bits produces a single hyperspectral image which comprises several hundred megabytes of digital information. As can be appreciated, storage and/or transmission of multiple images having this size requires a vast amount of system resources (e.g., memory space, transmission time, etc.).
Therefore, a need exists for a method and apparatus for compressing hyperspectral imagery data.